None.
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
An easily transportable device with wireless telecommunications capabilities, such as a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant, a handheld computer, or a similar device, will be referred to herein as a mobile device. Mobile devices typically include an address book feature for storing and organizing contact information. An address book might allow contacts to be organized into groups with common characteristics, such as family, friends, or coworkers.
In one embodiment, a mobile device is provided. The mobile device includes a processor and an address book configured to provide a display to display a current geographic location of a contact associated with an entry in the address book.
In another embodiment, a method for providing location information is provided. The method includes displaying on a mobile device an entry in an address book and displaying on the mobile device an indicator of a geographic location of a contact associated with the entry.
In another embodiment, a system is provided. The system includes an application server configured to promote display on a mobile device a plurality of entries in an address book. The entries include indicia related to geographic locations of contacts associated with the entries.
These and other features will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.
For a more complete understanding of this disclosure, reference is now made to the following brief description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and detailed description, wherein like reference numerals represent like parts.
a illustrates a portion of a geographic mobile address book according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
b illustrates a map that might be displayed in conjunction with a geographic mobile address book according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
a illustrates a portion of a geographic mobile address book according to an alternative embodiment of the disclosure.
b illustrates a portion of a geographic mobile address book according to another alternative embodiment of the disclosure.
a illustrates a portion of a geographic mobile address book according to another alternative embodiment of the disclosure.
b illustrates a map that might be displayed in conjunction with a geographic mobile address book according to an alternative embodiment of the disclosure.
It should be understood at the outset that although illustrative implementations of one or more embodiments are provided below, the disclosed systems and/or methods may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or in existence. The disclosure should in no way be limited to the illustrative implementations, drawings, and techniques illustrated below, including the exemplary designs and implementations illustrated and described herein, but may be modified within the scope of the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.
Traditionally, an address book for a mobile device has been an application stored within the memory of the mobile device itself. However, the capabilities of a device-based address book might be limited by the limited processing power and memory space typically available on a mobile device. To provide enhanced capabilities, some telecommunications service providers have begun implementing address book applications on networks to which mobile devices have access. The computing power available via the network allows the creation of address books with additional features and storage space. The use of a network-based address book also facilitates the transfer of contact information when subscribers switch mobile devices and/or service providers.
In an embodiment, a network-based address book with a real-time dynamic view of the geographic location of a contact is provided. That is, in addition to the data fields that are traditionally displayed in an address book for a contact, such as name, telephone number, and email address, an additional field is provided that displays the contact's current location or a link to the contact's current location. The location might be represented by a graphical display such as a map, by a street address, by a city name, or by some other graphics-based or text-based information. The display of location information might show the location of a single contact, the locations of all members of a predefined group of contacts, or the locations of all contacts in a specified geographic area. A network-based address book that provides a real-time dynamic view of the geographic location of a contact in the address book will be referred to herein as a geographic mobile address book.
a illustrates an embodiment of a display that might appear on a mobile device that has access to a geographic mobile address book. The display shows a table 10 with a plurality of columns 20 of data categories and a plurality of rows 30, each displaying data associated with a contact. As used herein, the term “entry” will refer to the set of data on a single row 30 of a geographic mobile address book and the term “contact” will refer to a person or a group of persons associated with an entry. In the embodiment of
The View Location column 20c contains an icon 40, a button, or some other type of data entry mechanism associated with each of the entries. The term “icon” will be used herein to refer to any portion of a graphical user interface on a mobile device that, when selected, causes the mobile device to perform an action. In the embodiment of
The map 50 might include an indicator 60 to indicate the current location of the contact who is associated with the icon 40 that was selected. A text-based description 70 of the location might also appear on or near the map 50. The scale of the map 50 might automatically be adjusted to provide an appropriate view of the location based on the information available for the contact. For example, if the location of the contact is known at the level of accuracy of a street address, the map 50 might be a street map. If the city in which the contact is located is known but the contact's current street address in that city is not known, the map 50 might have a larger scale. Zoom controls, scroll controls, and other well known map navigation tools might appear with the map 50. The indicator 60 might move about in the map 50 to reflect the movements of the contact.
In another embodiment, rather than an icon being associated with each of the entries, a single location-related icon might be displayed in a geographic mobile address book. A mobile device user might highlight one of the entries in the address book and then select the single icon to request a map of the location of the contact associated with the highlighted entry. A map similar to the map 50 of
a illustrates an embodiment of another table 100 that might appear in a geographic mobile address book. In this case, the table 100 includes a Location column 110 rather than the View Location column 20c depicted in
b illustrates an alternative embodiment of the table 100 of
It is well known that the entries in an address book can be arranged into groups with common characteristics, such as family or friends. In an embodiment, a geographic mobile address book can display entries arranged by groups. This is illustrated in
For example, the group Family might contain four members. Selecting the icon 230a associated with the Family group might cause the table 200 to be removed from the screen of the mobile device and cause the map 240 of
In another embodiment, a user of a mobile device with a geographic mobile address book can specify a geographic region and request the mobile device to display a map showing the locations of all of the user's contacts who are currently in that region. A map similar to the map 240 of
When a user of the mobile device 400 requests the location of a contact in the mobile device's geographic mobile address book, the request is handled by the application server 320. The application server 320 might include an application that provides the functionalities of the geographic mobile address book. The application server 320 queries the location server 330 for the location of the selected contact. The location server 330 might obtain location information from a Global Positioning System (GPS) in a mobile device being carried by the contact. The location server 330 returns the location to the application server 320 and the application server 320, via the network 310, causes the location information to appear in an appropriate form on a display screen 402 on the mobile device 400.
In the case where the user of the mobile device 400 requests the locations of a group of contacts, the application server 320 might determine who the members of the group are and then query the location server 330 for the locations of all of the members of the group. Upon receiving the location information from the location server 330, the application server 320 might create a map showing the locations of the group members and send the map to the mobile device 400.
In the case where the user requests the locations of all contacts in a given geographical region, the application server 320 might query the location server 330 for the locations of all contacts in the user's geographic mobile address book. Upon receiving that information, the application server 320 might determine which of the contacts are currently in the specified region. The application server 320 might then prepare a map of the region that indicates the locations of the contacts in the region and might send the map to the mobile device 400.
In an alternative embodiment, some or all of the functionality provided by the application server 320 resides on the mobile device 400. The mobile device 400 might receive location information from the location server 330 via the network 310 and the mobile device 400 might then cause the location information to appear in an appropriate form on its display screen 402.
The mobile device 400 includes the display 402 and a touch-sensitive surface or keys 404 for input by a user. The mobile device 400 may present options for the user to select, controls for the user to actuate, and/or cursors or other indicators for the user to direct. The mobile device 400 may further accept data entry from the user, including numbers to dial or various parameter values for configuring the operation of the mobile device 400. The mobile device 400 may further execute one or more software or firmware applications in response to user commands. These applications may configure the mobile device 400 to perform various customized functions in response to user interaction.
Among the various applications executable by the mobile device 400 are a web browser, which enables the display 402 to show a web page. The web page is obtained via wireless communications with a cell tower 406, a wireless network access node, or any other wireless communication network or system. The cell tower 406 (or wireless network access node) is coupled to a wired network 408, such as the Internet. The cell tower 406 and the wired network 408 may be substantially equivalent to the network 310 of
The DSP 502 or some other form of controller or central processing unit operates to control the various components of the mobile device 400 in accordance with embedded software or firmware stored in memory 504. In addition to the embedded software or firmware, the DSP 502 may execute other applications stored in the memory 504 or made available via information carrier media such as portable data storage media like the removable memory card 520 or via wired or wireless network communications. The application software may comprise a compiled set of machine-readable instructions that configure the DSP 502 to provide the desired functionality, or the application software may be high-level software instructions to be processed by an interpreter or compiler to indirectly configure the DSP 502.
The antenna and front end unit 506 may be provided to convert between wireless signals and electrical signals, enabling the mobile device 400 to send and receive information from a cellular network or some other available wireless communications network. The RF transceiver 508 provides frequency shifting, converting received RF signals to baseband and converting baseband transmit signals to RF. The analog baseband processing unit 510 may provide channel equalization and signal demodulation to extract information from received signals, may modulate information to create transmit signals, and may provide analog filtering for audio signals. To that end, the analog baseband processing unit 510 may have ports for connecting to the built-in microphone 512 and the earpiece speaker 514 that enable the mobile device 400 to be used as a cell phone. The analog baseband processing unit 510 may further include a port for connecting to a headset or other hands-free microphone and speaker configuration.
The DSP 502 may send and receive digital communications with a wireless network via the analog baseband processing unit 510. In some embodiments, these digital communications may provide Internet connectivity, enabling a user to gain access to content on the Internet and to send and receive e-mail or text messages. The input/output interface 518 interconnects the DSP 502 and various memories and interfaces. The memory 504 and the removable memory card 520 may provide software and data to configure the operation of the DSP 502. Among the interfaces may be the USB interface 522 and the infrared port 524. The USB interface 522 may enable the mobile device 400 to function as a peripheral device to exchange information with a personal computer or other computer system. The infrared port 524 and other optional ports such as a Bluetooth interface or an IEEE 802.11 compliant wireless interface may enable the mobile device 400 to communicate wirelessly with other nearby mobile devices and/or wireless base stations.
The input/output interface 518 may further connect the DSP 502 to the vibrator 526 that, when triggered, causes the mobile device 400 to vibrate. The vibrator 526 may serve as a mechanism for silently alerting the user to any of various events such as an incoming call, a new text message, and an appointment reminder.
The keypad 528 couples to the DSP 502 via the interface 518 to provide one mechanism for the user to make selections, enter information, and otherwise provide input to the mobile device 400. Another input mechanism may be the touch screen LCD 530, which may also display text and/or graphics to the user. The touch screen LCD controller 532 couples the DSP 502 to the touch screen LCD 530.
The CCD camera 534 enables the mobile device 400 to take digital pictures. The DSP 502 communicates with the CCD camera 534 via the camera controller 536. The GPS sensor 538 is coupled to the DSP 502 to decode global positioning system signals, thereby enabling the mobile device 400 to determine its position. Various other peripherals may also be included to provide additional functions, e.g., radio and television reception.
While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure, it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The present examples are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is not to be limited to the details given herein. For example, the various elements or components may be combined or integrated in another system or certain features may be omitted, or not implemented.
Also, techniques, systems, subsystems and methods described and illustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may be combined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, or methods without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Other items shown or discussed as coupled or directly coupled or communicating with each other may be indirectly coupled or communicating through some interface, device, or intermediate component whether electrically, mechanically, or otherwise. Other examples of changes, substitutions, and alterations are ascertainable by one skilled in the art and could be made without departing from the spirit and scope disclosed herein.